


A journey to Pangaea

by DameSeshat



Category: No Fandom
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Angst, Drama, Drama & Romance, Family Drama, Fantasy, Fluff, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Humor, Humor, Magic, Multi, Mystery, POV Third Person, Romance, Slow Burn, alternative universe, inspired by fiction
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-18
Updated: 2018-04-13
Packaged: 2019-04-04 03:10:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,682
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14010876
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DameSeshat/pseuds/DameSeshat
Summary: Aleksei and Ibragim are brothers, friends and always end up in a mess as they explore their world around them. However things turn rather curious when the pair wake up in another world, not sure how they ended up here and surrounded by strong magic. Their story unfolds as they try to find a path back home, struggle with the new surroundings and people in it as well as being tangled up in that worlds happenings.





	1. The two unlucky

**Author's Note:**

> Hello! This is a story I have been working on for some time. It was inspired by several books (Harry Potter, Mortal Instruments, The Tiger Saga, etc.) and movies of the same genre, finally also people watching. The characters are a mixture of several people of varying degree of fame. I hope you like it! Kudos and comments are highly welcome!  
> Note: Changed the name from "Pangaea, The Royals and two friends" to "A journey to Pangaea"

The snowstorm roared on outside of the cave where two men found shelter, cowered together to provide each other warmth and some sort of comfort. Exhausted and drained of every single bit of want to continue on with their quest on hand. The weather in the mountains could change quickly, a fact they both were aware of and yet had hoped to have luck.  
“Next time you decide to go investigate an old wives’ tale, please knock me out cold so I don’t have to accompany you, Aleksei,” one of the males spoke, feeling how his whole body was close to frozen. In dire need of more than a warm hug to thaw him up and give a will to push onwards in their journey. The other, Aleksei himself, cracked a smile as his hand rose to rub the back of his neck – right now it felt like a stiff blank of wood that he barely wanted to move. “Ou com’on Ibragim. It is an adventure! The snow storm will pass and we shall go back down.”  
Neither of them spoke any more - sleep taking over their bodies as the storm worsened, causing the light to fade around them. Two men, huddled up together as they found rest in the sleep provided to their exhausted bodies. In the dead of night two figures emerged, cloaked in black and walking towards the pair. No words spoken, probably not even needed, they simply nodded at each other as if their conversation went on inside their heads.  
Meanwhile, circling around the two men, their ghostly steps quickened only to end up sounding like pins were falling against glass. Bodies turning into a blur, the speed increasing and the volume of their steps staring to mix in with the roaring storm outside. It was an awful combination of sounds, one that made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. There was an odd dull pop - the all black clothed creatures disappeared and the sleeping pair lay peacefully in a field of black roses hugging themselves around the figures. Laying under a blood red moon, the pair was unaware that their journey had only just begun.

Aleksei was the first to move, happy to feel the presence of what he assumed to be a warm summer breeze on his cheek that began to heat up his whole body. The crown of his head felt the same way, just like during summer and the looming sun above ones head tried to fry ones brain. It warmed him to a point where the heat became uncomfortable and stuffy. His eyes opened, not as heavy and frozen as he had anticipated, quickly widening up as a thin white stick was pointed in his face.  
“State your purpose laying in the Royal Black Garden,” the female spoke with firmness in her voice, which reminded him of his mother. It was the tone of voice she used either to get an explanation or to state her unhappiness of current events. Aleksei was well acquainted with it as his younger self herd it at least once or twice a week. Thick cold brown locks had been put into a high ponytail, trying to look sleek and yet in the end her natural curls killed off said intent. Clothes seemed modern enough, very much looking like a well styled office worker and yet he had to remark that no speck of make up was upon her face. Used to seeing some women using the artistry of make up to create a whole new face, Aleksei was oddly comforted by the sight. He had nothing against anyone wearing make up, yet rarely found the end results to his own liking and said feeling was always kept to his own knowledge. Him commenting on what someone else did to feel good about themselves seemed simply out of place, awkward even.  
“Uhm…Ibragim,” he spoke, shaking his friend to get him awake and make sure this wasn’t some messed up dream the cold had brought on. “Ibragim, I swear wake up or punch me awake.”  
Slowly his eyes looked around to see at least a dozen others with similar sticks of various sizes, colours and lengths - one older gentleman even leaning against it as they all stared hole after hole into them. The previously slumbering figure, grunting and grumbling in anger, didn’t seem to want to wake up until Aleksei kneed him in the side and left the male yelping into a conscious state.  
“I won’t ask ask again. State your purpose laying in the Royal Black Garden.”  
“I dare to say they don’t seem to know considering how they are both now gawking at you , madam Headgirl. I suggest we go about it with a more friendlier tone simply to make sure these poor lads don’t suffer a human problem.”  
The man who spoke, the one leaning against his tall dark grey stick, wore an amused smile upon his lips while gazing down on the two males. Ibragim, finally awake, and pretty sure he was seeing things, looked at his friend with an even more annoyed gaze. Whenever either of them were in trouble, it was always somehow Aleksei’s fault or at least could be. “In the what? We are just two blokes from the underbelly of Saint Petersburg, trying our best not get killed by the weather and me not by him.”  
Aleksei grinned once more, glad that his old friend was still the same and solid proof this wasn’t all imagined. So the field of satin black roses wasn’t imagined, neither the people around them or the soft warm golden glow of the sun above their heads. Wherever they were, it was clearly better than the rough slopes of Colombia’s North Mountains, searching the real truth behind the folktales having been told to them. Surely there was a fairly logical explanation to everything, yet nothing seemed to explain how they ended up in a different climate and setting. Ibragim wasn’t sure how a whole garden of velvet black roses could be grown or maintained in such a beautiful lush manner. Hedges framed the garden in their typical green and yet oddly off in colour as well – the richness they had was nearly emerald, unreal and even a bit fake looking. Everything seemed normal, for a lack of a better word, yet small details were a dead give away that Aleksei and Ibragim weren’t in Columbia anymore.  
“You are in the Royal Black Garden, apart of the Royal Gardens of the capital,” the female, called madam Headgirl, spoke with a slight boredom in her voice as it was clear there wouldn’t be any information gathered from the two half awake figures. Withdrawing her white wood wand, she took five steps back and gave a chance for both males to stand up. “Clearly you are unaware. You haven’t drawn your wands nor spoken any other ways of self-defense. Might I ask – who are you?”  
“Aleksei Grookshield and the grumpy creature next to me is Ibragim Grookshiled.” Both males noted how her brow nearly rose in surprise hearing their full names, but controlled herself enough not to let it happen. Composed and calm – it seemed that was what she was going for, leaving her looking more like every human emotion had left her body for a holiday.  
“Mister Grookshield and mister Grookshield,– please accompany us into the castle for interrogation. Though you aren’t aware of your surroundings, there is a question to how you managed to come into a space clearly only meant for the royal family.”  
Everyone around the two males put away their wands and started whispering, eyes still firmly on the two males struggling to get up or leave their confusion behind. Aleksei stood up first, groaning like an old man in the process as his whole body was still sore from the uncomfortable sleeping position and hike up the mountain. Ibragim however didn’t seem to budge, staring up at his friend and then looking around – a rather toddler like confusion within him as he tried to somehow understand the situation. Becoming aware of his friend’s confusion and distress, Aleksei bent over to help him up and give him a friendly smile – whatever the circumstance, he was always in a good mood. Annoying, surely, but for now very much needed.  
The cloudless sky brought out the golden shine of the sun even more, leaving both males too aware of how warm their surroundings truly were and their clothes clearly didn’t suit it. Add that to their bodies and feet aching from the yesterdays difficult hike. However the people around them didn’t even consider their misfortunate predicament, seeing as they only wished for the two to finally move. With heavy sighs they started to move surrounded by the ever-whispering crowd lead by the female with the disinterested voice.  
As they passed through the garden, hedges tall and dwarfish, flowers of various types and origins passing them by before a castle started to come into view. It was a huge estate, three stories tall and kept in a beautiful wash of white beige and golden details. Set to impress and steal your eyesight in the intense sunlight, the castle became more and more a looming figure as the garden and its paths shrank away into the distance. The closer one got the more details one spotted and Ibragim muttered under his breath that there is probably no finer pure piece of rococo architecture ever set before his eyes. To Aleksei it didn’t say anything as he found the details too gaudy and overwhelming, noting that he would need a GPS system to navigate such an absurdly large estate. In here lay a difference between the two men which became evident – Ibragim marveled at the architecture, hoping he remembered every detail to later write it down in his notebook, while Aleksei thought of expenses to keep up such a large building.  
They stopped before a large heavily ornate door flanked by two at least 3 meter tall guards, looking down at the Headgirl and then the whole squad behind her before the tall man on the left grunted out a question.  
“What are those?”  
“The invaders. We are going to the dungeons,” she spoke with a steady firm voice, looking at them both before letting her gaze settle on the door. The two tall creatures both knocked on the door, probably only through heavy training not breaking the somewhat gentle looking ornaments. Their hands seemed off scale compared to the door, making the sight oddly fun to look at.  
If the outside of the castle were like an over decorated cake, then the interior, at least in this part, was minimalistic and rather cold with maze like corridors. Though both males tried to remember the way they came it became hard as twists and turns seemed to come at every corner, leaving their orientation skills to be useless. After what seemed like a ten minute walk through a confusing set of long winding corridors they came to a halt before a simple looking black door. Wordlessly, soundlessly, the heavy metal door opened up to reveal a simple looking. In the far end stood two beds with simple grey bedding and a shared nightstand. Right at the door stood a simple looking bookshelf next to it a mirror. Roughly in the middle of the room stood a proud old dining table richly filled with food and drinks, the smell nearly knocking you unconscious once the door opened. The furniture, apart from the beautiful antique table, was all made out of metal and left a prison like feel lingering inside the two humans. What saved the room was the antique table made out of a dark wood with rich gold detailing.  
“Once you are done eating we shall interrogate you.”  
She stepped aside and waited for the men to enter, lightly tapping her foot as she seemed to rather be doing something else. Aleksei and Ibragim looked at each other, noses catching the intoxicatingly amazing smell of coffee and bacon, leaving Ibragim to mutter something about “fuck it” and entering the room with his friend following. The door closed behind them while both frantically pushed off their stuffy clothes while eagerly eyeing the food. There was no sound as the heavy door closed, no footsteps leaving and neither male even noticed it, hunger having left them deaf to sound.  
The first five minutes neither spoke as they stuffed their faces and drank coffee as if it were water, probably even forgetting where they were or that they were together. Their trip up the mountain had been a difficult one, leaving them exhausted and with a hunger unmatched by any other desire.  
“Our backpacks are gone,” Ibragim finally spoke, having managed to quench his hunger for now and able to think clearly once more. Eyes sweeping over the space they were led into and trying to see if there was a chance that they could be watched or their chat being recorded. He couldn’t remember when they had removed their backpacks – a good amount of nervousness spreading in his system. Mind blank, Ibragim hated when he forgot details that could be important to him and yet his own brain deciding send them into a black hole.  
“I wouldn’t be surprised if they confiscated them and are trying to figure out what we are or who,” Aleksei replied, pushing the third bacon sandwich into his mouth, still feeling like he was hungry. Ibragim grimaced at the action, but in the end didn’t comment, as his coffee was too soothing to be too upset about it. Sipping it calmly he tried to piece together what was going on, yet couldn’t come to any sort of logical explanation. They could have died in the cold, which made this the afterlife where he still was stuck with Aleksei and not hidden away in an endless library. Without much effort he realized that being here with his friend had a calming effect, so afterlife with the other didn’t sound that bad. “You are thinking about a logical background system for this whole madness aren’t you?”  
“Too right you are. We could be dead, but I am not sure. What happened to make us ended up here?”  
“Beats me. If this is the afterlife, we just ate their food and can’t leave. As long as they don’t torture us everything should be fine, no?”  
“Your cheerful nature really does get annoying,” Ibragim sighed and left it at that, knowing too well that them two bickering would only lead to him being the one who grew upset. Instead he watched the door, waiting for that woman to come back and start asking questions. He naturally had several to ask her, though figured it would be useless to ask them as she would either not reply or find his inquiries amusingly dumb.  
Another five minutes passed before the door opened again, the Headgirl entering together with two other hooded figures and wordlessly taking a free chair to place at the end of the table. Much to Ibragrim’s dismay their backpacks were nowhere to be seen and thus he couldn’t enjoy a nice read before bed tonight.  
“I guess I ought to start with the most burning question – how did you end up in this at the royal estate?” she asked, her voice once more sounding as if it would fall asleep and yet steady enough to indicate she had to restrain herself from showing too much curiosity.  
“We died?” Aleksei spoke, maybe a bit too quickly as Ibragim stared at him and the female raised a curious brow. “Maybe not.”  
“You are not magical, clearly, neither are you a registered species of any magical form. You are simply – mundane,” she spoke, eyes slowly settling on Ibragim and then Aleksei. The males seemed confused, slowly looking at each other as if the answers laid in each others slightly agape mouths. “Well as you don’t seem offended by my words, then you truly are. This makes things even harder to explain to the royal family, as there is no way you could be in the heart of the gardens without using any sort of magic.”  
“Look, miss,” Ibragim spoke, having found his voice together with annoyance, eyes settling back on the female. Aleksei knew that tone of voice and leaned back, picking up a piece of apple simply to enjoy the oncoming interaction. “We are two extremely exhausted males trying to figure out where we are, but instead of explaining you firstly state how basic we are and continue on making it seem like us being in said place was impossible. Not for a moment have you thought that maybe your own security is lacking so much that two mundane men could end up here? You woke us up in that part of the garden and before you did we had been facing harsh weather and I had to deal with mister sunshine over there. Before you continue on making us simple creatures, how about you explain where we are!”  
The two guards at the door moved their heads, probably to stared in awe at Ibragim, while the Headgirl eyes seemed to let out sparks of anger, staring at the male with utter annoyance. Clearly she wasn’t used to someone countering her comments and statements like that, which meant this could become even more fun to observe. Aleksei silently ate his apple, even nodding along to what his friend had said, trying his best not to chuckle at the whole ordeal. In the silence where both parties regained some sort of composure, the female let out a small dry cough before speaking.  
“You are in Pangaea,” she spoke, Ibragim brows raising and even Aleksei showing a response to which the Headgirl seemed to waver in continuing on. “Yes?”  
“Pangaea is the name given to the time when all of Earths continents were combined to one.” Aleksei spoke, rather quickly at that leaving him to nearly trip over his own words while explaining this.  
“Well yes,” she replied with a small nod of her head, not quite understanding the males surprise over this. However the longer she thought about it, a knowing glint sparked in her eyes as she settled into her seat more. What seemed like a smile came to her face, clearly happy to have found an answer to the many questions piling up in her head. “Ah right, of course. It makes sense – you are humans. Yes, yes of course.”  
“Of course we are humans,” Ibragim spoke, nearly annoyed at her comment and clearly not in the mood to be given simple answers. While Aleksei never was bothered by others, simply since he either didn’t care or couldn’t bring himself to waste energy in such a way – Ibragim was much more emotional. To him the way she spoke only evoked a great deal of annoyance and a steady wish to leave the space they were in.  
“You will do well to keep your snappy replies more polite as your whole society is to blame that you have no idea where you are,” she spoke, once more in that firm voice that made Aleksei shudder. How a female could manage such a tone was beyond him, yet he hoped it would stop. The Headgirl sighed, adjusting herself on her chair and sending Ibragim a warning glance. “Anyway centuries ago the human world and ours had pretty close contact, soon enough understanding that we inhabit the same planet, but in different time settings. However your heads of state decided at one point that having contact to a magic filled world harmed future development and things were simply erased from the past. My own surprise stems from the fact that we haven’t had humans on these lands for nearly 7 centuries and maybe more.”  
Both males stared at her with such utter confusion and surprise, that the guards flanking the door could be heard chuckling under their breaths. Aleksei felt dumbfounded, knowing that the winners wrote the history and yet such a massive rewrite seemed nearly unimaginable. Ibragim trail of thought moved towards how to prove her words, landing on his favourite subject of what secrets lay hidden in the Vaticans very own archives. Silence settled as both tried their very hardest to process what had been told to them, yet struggling with coming to terms with such a piece of news. “So how did we get here?”  
Aleksei, trying to push aside his initial surprise, asked her and as his eyes settled back on her to spot a light sight of amusement on her face. It faded away quickly, yet seeing she could display emotion was an oddly comforting fact to him.  
“All the passages have been sealed several centuries ago, so they clearly are not an option although the only explanation. You see magic is a fickle thing to control and one having formed without our knowledge could have happened even though it is a rare occurrence,” she explained a lot more calmly, having now figured out what they were and how they got there. While the Headgirl spoke she pulled out her wand and did a smooth wrist movement, which let the two backpacks, appear into the room with a small crackling noise. “They were searched. Nothing was taken.”  
Neither Aleksei nor Ibragim cared for that as they had a lot more questions, only with an absent nod indicated that they had heard her and were grateful to have their belonging back. “Excuse me, but why is magic fickle like that?”  
“Uh,” she let out a small sound of contemplation, looking behind her at one of the hooded guards to find some sort of support. With light cat like steps one came forward, giving a bow of her head towards the Headgirl before moving to look at the males, pushing off her hood and turning out to be a female of colour and Aleksei wondered if the other might be one as well. She had rich brown hair and dark skin, eyes a beautiful dark green, a soft smile on her lips – compared to her boss, the guard seemed downright friendly. Her body was tall and lean, hair natural and once more not even a crumb of makeup on her skin. From under her cloak you could see tribal tattoos, swirling over her body and Ibragim had to wonder if the tribes in Africa knew of this world, but chose to hide the fact from the rest of the world. It wouldn't be the first time it turned out that the large continent hid away secrets and unknown facts - truthfully he now wished Aleksei would develop a love of that area of the world.  
“This world works and exists through and with magic. Because of this the magical energy is rather intense and to unload itself creates uncontrollable changes in our world, which the guardians try to somehow resolve or control. Usually it is comes in the form of intense red lighting storms or black rain showers. However over the past two centuries it has also created portals and passages, which usually are contained within our own world, but it seems the energy is strong enough to now create connections to its parallel worlds.” she spoke in a soft voice, the tone that of a caring teacher wanting to make sure you understood the complex nature of a fully unexplained occurrence. Her smile never faded, eyes holding a glint of want to share her knowledge. “In the past not much has been done to lessen this intensity as it also means more powerful magic could be used without much energy spent. However in the past few decades, because of the intense changes, our royals have tried to combat it.”  
Ibragim stared at her in pure awe, which was normal for him, as he always adored females who had an immense amount of knowledge. In his own words nothing made a female more interesting and beautiful than the knowledge she puts into her brain – even if he had this noble understanding, it wasn’t one he always followed. Aleksei, a lot less impressed, wondered what would happen to them in this change of environment. “While my friend is in awe of this, how will this affect us? Also you speak of passages and portals – the difference would be?”  
“Passages are well like a pair of doors – you walk into one and come out in the another. They are linked, but the traveller doesn’t have to know where the exit is. Passages are usually rooted to one spot. A magical creature to get to a place they know well and usually only used for short travels, however, creates portals. However we don’t know you got here,” she spoke with a small amount of eagerness in her voice, as her eyes eagerly took in both the males appearance. Aleksei chose not to linger on the thought of the unknown forces playing trick on them and instead gave a small nod to her words. Fear seeped into his system, eyes darting to his friend who had managed to gather his brain and somehow come to some question of his own.  
“Let us say this all is true – how do we get back? Can we get back?”  
“We would need to find the partner to said passage and in the garden was none – our detection spells should have shown it if it had been,” she spoke and warily looks at the Headgirl as if asking for permission to continue on with her explanation. Clearly contemplating for a small moment the female gave a short firm nod and the guard continues on. “As this is an occurrence only now under investigation we aren’t sure if these newly crated passages are connected and rooted or have taken on a more portal like nature. You see in the past they were controlled by designed guardians, who with their magic and spells created an anchor for it to be in one place. These free spirited ones could be only created temporarily and disappear or skip around the whole of our world.”  
“In short our chances of getting home are slim?”  
“Yes.”


	2. The Archivist

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Aleksei and Ibragim meet the Archivist, ending up having more questions than actual answers.

The interrogation went on for two more hour, where both sides asked questions and tried to make sense of the whole situation. Yet the more they debated, inquired and tried to understand what was going on the less sense things seemed to make. With the room being windowless it was hard to understand what time of day it was, though exhaustion still slumbered deeply in the males bones. Wishing for nothing more than a comfortable bed and to rest for the next three years, Aleksei especially grew tired of the conversation and instead started to fidget in his seat. Never having been the patient one, it had also transpired that there was clearly no way to simply return back home. Both men had learned over time, that there always will be a plan B or C down to last character in the alphabet if need be. However this time around it seemed like hope wouldn't be something to hang onto, rather cast aside to find a new emotion to tie your hopes too.  
Another hour passed before the Headgirl and her guards left the two males to enjoy their next meal – once more the table was filled to the brim with delicious dishes. The males had not noticed how the dishes appeared and disappeared, to wrapped up in their surroundings that a small information overload seemed to become evident. The cuisine was rather suitable to their tastes, however Ibragim seemed less eager to eat now that his head was filled with questions. How could he be hungry when there was a real chance to be stuck in a place he had no connections too and for now was caged up like a villain. Aleksei, nearly annoyed at said fact, looked at the other and let out a small yet heavy sigh. It was bothersome to watch someone ponder so feverishly over things that could not be changed.   
“Just start talking. Your silent brooding is disturbing my mealtime, appetite and wish to live.”  
“Doesn’t it bother you? There is a whole chunk of history written out of our history books just because it didn’t fit certain people close to power?” Ibragim, who always wanted the truth rather than a pile of lies, clearly didn’t like the sound of it and grimaced in the end. Both had studied history and knew how much isn’t taught at schools or even kept quiet about, yet this was one step too far for the albino truth seeker. There were limits to how many untold stories were allowed to be left in the fog of forget.   
“It does and it doesn’t. If we linger on this too long, we naturally will come to the point where everything we know might be a lie. We have gone over this so many times, Ibragim, and really there is no simply easy solution other than accepting the fact how it is. Two curious minds won't change the whole of history - we lack power. Especially once one ponders over literature – how much is make believe and how much is someone recording somewhat true events? However right now there a delicious meal before our faces – how about you eat?” Aleksei, himself not sure how to feel nor help his friend, pushed a fork full of meat doused in a delicious sauce into his mouth. Eating slowly, already feeling those deep going thoughts creep up to his conscious, nearly wished they wouldn’t have gotten to know this piece of information.  
With a loud defeated sigh, Ibragim started to eat as well and during small digestion break walked to his backpack to check if everything was there. None of his electronics worked and even if he managed to get one somewhat working, the screen flickered and let out annoying sounds that sounded like it was in pain. Aleksei watched silently, enjoying the given food to the fullest and the fuller his stomach became the less room for deep going thoughts seemed to be left. Exhaustion was a curious creature as it was overpowering and yet welcomed, especially when ones own mind was filled to the brim with thoughts. In such moments giving up and choosing slumber always seemed to be a helpful way of action.  
After what seemed like two or three hours at least, both men laid bored on their bed and wondered what came next and if they ever would be allowed outside again. Time seemed to either slow down or pass quickly, they couldn’t really decide on it as there were no indicators. Neither had a working watch and their phones seemed happily dead on their bedside tables.  
With no warning the door opened again with the Headgirl coming into view and behind her the older man, who had talked sense into her outside in the park.  
“Ah,” the men let out in union, getting up as their guests arrived. Moving to sit up, it seemed a much more casual occasion and thus didn’t really feel pressured to get up from their comfortable seating. Yet once their guests was seated, they reluctantly joined the two as to show they weren’t without manners.  
“Headgirl has informed me of who you are,” the male spoke, his voice warm and gentle like that of a fun grandfather who you wanted to visit to hear interesting stories from his childhood. “Humans. How interesting! I have seen only one before in my lifetime. It is an honour.”  
“How…wait what?” Aleksei asked, being the faster one to do the math behind the males statement to come up with a rather intimidating age. “You mean the last human you saw came from the what – 14th Century?”  
“Ah well actually 12th century as I am not always in the capital. Anyway how interesting indeed – humans in our realm are such a rare occasion and meeting two! Indeed…indeed,” he spoke without any rhyme or reason behind his mutterings, grey eyes fixated on the two males before him. Looking like someone had handed him the best Christmas and birthday gift ever, nearly giddy with excitement and getting small side glances from the Headgirl. “If I remember correctly then in the job description of the Headgirl is also being present in preparation to large scale events, no? I am well equipped to deal with humans, you may leave.”  
Although he spoke respectfully, there was an evident sign of being the more dominant one in this power play. The female, clearly displeased by the way she was spoken too, let out a small sound of annoyance as she moved to stand up from her seat and look between the three men. Aleksei had an odd sense of discomfort in this moment, having once too many times heard someone speaking down to a female – it had been a habit of his grandfather when talking to his mother. That was probably why he decided to look away, while Ibragim eyes lingered on the old mans robes – both seemed ashamed. Yet wordlessly the tense situation seemed to be solved with the Headgirl leaving the room and the elderly figure relaxing into his seat.   
“Now,” he spoke, moving a hand into his robe pocket to pull out a A5 sized ragged dark green notebook filled with different kinds of papers, peeking out at odd angles. His voice was a lot more firm and having lost the giddy childish glee – like a new person sat before them and suddenly older than his looks would indicate. Flipping through it the elderly man seemed to be pondering over what he would be the first question to state. “Now. Who won the war?”  
The two males looked confused as they slowly looked at each other and then at the older male, Aleksei as if gesturing for Ibragim to be the one to deal with this question. Both were good in certain parts of history – Ibragim was better with everything concerning the world after queen Victoria ascended the throne and Aleksei in everything conserving the arts.   
“You should be more specific. We have managed to have several wars, two World Wars and others are coming.” Ibragim commented, not sure which one they should be discussing as humanity never seemed to keep itself attached to peace. Rather the opposite was the fact, especially when power hungry men and women sat at the head of war manufacturing and thirsted for blood.  
“Two? My dear boy, that is... hmm yes it was...indeed indeed…ah, well the one going on 1916?” The elderly man seemed to have aged another twenty if not thirty years, clearly disheartened by such news. To say it was odd to observe as the man before them visibly aged was clearly an understatement - it was disturbing and unsettling as it didn't understand how and why. Ibragim hesitated to reply, not sure what to reply to the older males sentence. Aleksei’s brow quivered as it seemed somehow odd the elderly male asked about an event that was by all means rather recent, yet considering with they knew it was impossible for the inhabitants of this world to know about it. Ibragim clearly reflected the sentiment, yet resorted to simply answer rather than answer a question with a question.  
“Well, er, the First World War ended with no one winning. Not really. There was the Lost Generation, the horrors of the war and only a small pause before another war broke out. Disillusioned people continued on with their lives or tried too, but mistakes were once more made and humanity never does learn. I wish I could say that World War Two solved everything, but” he spoke with a heavy sigh as his whole family had suffered terribly under the effects of both wars. Aleksei's family, only through luck, wasn’t effected too much and he didn’t have such a personal connection to the whole horror of the past. “But we then had the Cold War and whatever horrific joke is going on now. But, if you don’t mind me asking, how do you know about this?”  
“My dear boys,” he spoke with a heavy heart, staring at the two with sadness in his eyes unmatched by anything else either had seen. It was odd to watch him as he clearly aged before ones eyes, but it showed clear how he wasn’t just an adorable grandfather. He understood what they were implying as if he had been apart of the war, having seen the horrors and now had been uncomfortably reminded of them. Impossible to be true, yet his eyes were clearly telling such a story. He clearly was ignoring the question tacked on in the end, leaving both males even further confused. Aleksei stuck to only staring at the older figure, not sure if he ought to say anything as Ibragim was much better with this – add to that one had to take note of this curious figure. “And what would be your nationalities? I do not think I wish to know more of the terrific past of humanity. How very sad, how very sad indeed.”  
“I am Russian,” Aleksei replied swiftly, finding this easier to answer and knowing this was clearly an unchanging truth. “My mother was French and after meeting my father moved to Russia, more specifically Saint Petersburg.”  
“Humans always tend to reply to these kinds of questions longer than one expected. And you?”  
“I am adopted. My mother is from the underbelly of Beijing and father from Chechnya, but through several…well in the end I was adopted by Alekseis parents and that is how I carry the same name as him. I guess that makes me Russian too or wherever I fit in.” Ibragim spoke calmly, nearly coldly, about the matter on hand. He didn’t like to discuss or even mention it, choosing to ignore it and leave people in the belief they could somehow be related. “And no I shall not tell you my original name.”  
“How curious!” he declared, leaving the two males to stare at each other again trying to understand how this old mans logic worked. He seemed to go from calm and collected to excited like a small child then to a worried old man, making Aleksei especially annoyed. The constant mood swing seemed out of place for someone, who wanted to know more about life and yet when presented with information chose to either ignore questions or giddily ask for more details. “Now tell me, how did you end up well…how?”  
“You mean why we are stuck here? Ask my wonderful adoptive brother.”  
“I shall happily speak of this. You see we are on a quest to find curious stories and what are behind them, which is why we traveled to Columbia. There a wonderfully curious older lady told us a fabulous story one night, one which I couldn’t stay away from. Her words haunted me and spiked a curiosity I haven’t felt in years. So after a good amount of convincing, my wonderful travel companion, loving brother and brilliant minded Ibragim joined me in the quest to conquer the North Colombia mountains. But the weather was unwelcoming and we took rest in a small cave, only to wake up, well here.”  
Aleksei was a wonderful story teller even if the summary was rather short, leaving out the travel inconveniences and bickering with his step brother, the food poisoning and finally money spent to even get close to these mountains. Convinced that negative details would ruin someones connection to a story, he always chose to cut them out and mention them only if there was need for drama. Not to mention how his voice and manner of speaking wrapped you in, pulled one onto the edge of their seat to know more.  
“Ah a woman seems like the start of so many stories,” the elderly man spoke, gesturing for the male to continue on and only getting silence in return. He frowned, before speaking once more. “How did the woman look like?”. There was another pause, one where Ibragim nudged his brother to speak and yet as both were so wonderfully confused it took time for Aleksei to answer.  
“She was at least 70, if not older. Though she never told us her age as no female should. She wore traditional clothing and had scars on both of her cheeks and forehead, like someone had clawed at her and left behind deep marks. You got used to the extra shadows they created on her face, even if the first thought is to turn away and not look at her. Ibragim seemed to be weak enough to do so, while I couldn't look away. One eye was dark brown and the other icy blue, very unsettling for me, and her nose was long but slender and lips thin yet deep red in colour. Her hair was golden, not simply blond, but truly golden and braided firmly against her scalp. She moved like water, at least Ibragrim noted that to me later, and sort of seemed like left hand was wounded without any visible scars. By her actions it was clear she was born left handed, but every movement was made by her left hand while her left stayed glued to her side.”  
There was a pause, a suffocating uncomfortable pause, as the older male scribbled everything down in this notepad. His pencil was pressed so strongly against the frail looking paper that it was a surprise the kohl heart of said pencil didn’t break nor did the paper. His eyes seemed to have lit up with an odd fury and fear, leaving both males uncomfortably fidgeting in their chairs as the only sound in the room was the pencil moving harshly against the paper surface. I  
“Right. Good. Wonderful. Yes, yes. I shall leave now and please be ready to move.”  
Nothing else was said as the male swiftly and quickly exited, muttering something under his breath as his brows knitted together further and face seemed to grow older. His robes moves about dramatically, flailing up and ruffling back down with small sounds left behind in the room. Aleksei wasn’t sure if he was imagining things, sure of himself that he saw the man before him age visibly and grow younger before once more looking like an old ancient figure. Once the door closed he turned around to face his brother, who was somehow rather pale looking, and cleared his throat. “I swear I am not drunk, but did the man before us age purely through will and what news we told him?”  
“I think, yes. But didn’t you see,” Ibragim spoke with a small hiss, something always to happen when he was scared or in discomfort. “Didn’t you see what was hidden under those long robes?”  
“Uhm, sorry I don’t stare at people like that.”  
“Well in his haste his robes flared up on his arms which were those of a old man, while his legs were that of a young man. Leksi I don’t think he actually has a permanent age.”


	3. First round of answers

“Okay, let’s layout what we know.” Aleksei and his brother sat in the middle of the room with food all around them and a notepad in both of their laps. Having tested that the food didn’t disappear once off the table, they created a shield of a wonderful meal around them. Pen in hand Ibragim looked at his notes, scribbled down in perfect handwriting, trying to see if he missed anything.  
“We are in a different galaxy, same planet and simply different state of time for this version of the Earth we know. Our world used to have contact and…there is at least one person aware of parts of our history.”

Aleksei nodded slowly to those words, his own pad was filled with names of those they had met or at least heard from the moment they started their trip from Frankfurt. Nothing seemed to add up or make sense, but the more they discussed the matters the more questions came up. “Also we aren’t the first humans here.”  
“I bet that old man, whoever he was, has met more humans, yet not this Headgirl person. This is weird, don’t you think?” Ibragim looked at the notes, frowning deeply at how little everything seemed to follow logic and making him question if they both had actually died. It was hard to determine if they were, in fact, alive as how could he prove either – death or life. “But one thing is for certain – this old woman you managed to meet is the reason for everything. Really why do you always end up talking to weird looking strangers so happily? Why can’t you just ignore them like everyone else?”

Aleksei huffed, annoyed, knowing full well the moment his brother didn’t understand something he would be the one to get the blame for it and listen to him complain. However this time around Ibragim was right, which made the situation a bit more annoying. Usually he could simply shrug it off and listen to his wonderfully witty brother go on and on about such matters – in the end somehow things always resolved themselves.

“Because she was…I don’t know. The moment I locked eyes with her I couldn’t simply say no to her. It was weird,” he spoke and grimaced, realizing what had happened without him really understanding it. “I mean it, Ibragim. Remember the history teacher we had in high school? How you swooned over her and every lesson you smiled brighter than the lamps above our heads? Same feeling for me with that old woman, who was indeed a stranger.”

“Leksi,” he groaned out, rolling his eyes slightly and moving a bit as he saw from the corner of his eye how the door opened once more. Neither of them bothered to get up, instead watching how the Headgirl walked in again with a new pair of guards flanking her sides. They were two men with Maori face tattoos, broad shoulders and grim faces as they looked down upon the two much slimmer male figures.

“It has been decided that your detention has ended and you have been moved to new housing,” the Headgirl, looking at them both like a mother gathering up their children. “Our gracious king has decided to give his foreign guests the proper housing.”  
Aleksei and Ibragim looked at each other, the latter slowly getting up from the floor to look at the female. Pushing his glasses back into place with his hand, he eyed the female closely before one of the guards clearly felt this was a breach of space and stepped between them. “I mean no harm. Instead I wish to ask, who was the elderly man from before?”  
“The Archivist, of course,” she replied swiftly, comfortably standing behind the broad shouldered man with a knowing smile upon her lips. “He knows everything of our world and yours. Always has. Sadly over the past centuries no successor has come along and he is still on this post, poor soul. Now please pack so we can leave.”

“No. Now if he only met a person from the 12th century – how on Earth did he know about the war?” Aleksei, now chiming into the conversation and clearly on the quest of wanting to find answers himself. The Headgirl let out a huff of annoyance over the two young humans being so endlessly nosy about a certain topic that did not and would not concern them. She eyed them, carefully, as her mouth slowly unscrewed itself to speak. “That matter is none of your concern and even if it was, I am in no status to know of how much the Archivist is knowledgeable of other worlds. He is ancient and respected for it. Now please pack.”

Ibragim had gave a small firm nod and started to move about while Aleksei sat there, still unsure of what to do and enjoying seeing the Headgirl become growingly unnerved by his unwavering gaze. In the end he hoisted himself up and helped his brother, both speaking in Russian just to keep their own thoughts hidden behind a language.  
“She is hiding something from us. They all are, but we have the upper hand because of who we are,” Aleksei spoke, his voice firm and serious, as his eyes didn’t move an inch off Ibragim’s face. “So I suggest we use this to learn as much as possible about them. After all we want to get home, no?”  
“I agree. This might turn out to be a rather curious adventure, brother dear.”

Packing and speaking in Russian, the two males were ready to move to new rooms after a good thirty minutes and smiling at the Headgirl with cheeky smiles. Naturally, they noted her annoyed expression and the guards baffled faces – using another language always managed such reactions, even if they weren’t human. Ready to explain themselves, as much as they please of course, they instead saw the heavy door slowly move open and the Headgirl gesturing for them to leave the space. With quickened steps they left the claustrophobic room to enter a hall they knew – it still looked too simple and stripped down compared to the over the top façade. Once more they set out down long winding corridors which seemed not to bend themselves to any logic. Instead they were created to be a maze. A labyrinth only there to confuse both males, leaving them incapable of making a mind map of the palace. After a while they landed before a simple looking staircase, which slowly twisted itself as they walked upwards. About eighteen steps in neither wanted to move further as the high stone steps took effort to climb and with heavy bags upon their shoulders things weren’t easy. “Are we there yet?”

Aleksei huffed and puffed, waving for the Headgirl’s attention as well as getting them to halt this march to wherever they needed to go. Breath slightly laboured Ibragim looked around and noticed that with only a few steps the décor moved back to more luxury and style. The walls seemed to move from the dull simple looking walls gradient to richer tones of blues, reds and violets with intricate gold detailing added into them.  
“We have yet to reach the third floor. Please move onwards.”  
Grunting, both started the climb once more, happy to see the first landing after twenty more arduous steps. Instead of long complex corridors were endless rooms – some empty, others crowded and then others only with a few servants cleaning. Once more, more stairs greeted them in a taunting twenty-two steps ascension further to the mentioned second floor where another break was required. Even crueler, were the remaining twenty-five step up the impossibly steep climb they had to then conquer.

The décor had grown to be a mixture of pure luxury and elegance, a true balance of style and comfort welcoming them as the colour scheme stayed rich and luscious. Not to mention wonderfully high ceilings and beautifully detailed furniture – Ibragim’s eyes shone with happiness as he tried his utmost best to remember every single detail before him. He wished his camera worked, but then again it would take decades to do justice to such splendour. How could one capture every intricate detail of the chairs, rich with carvings of different leaves and flowers, which seemed to never repeat themselves. The bed frames made out of dark wood, yet the way they had been handled seeming the opposite – light and airy as if they would break like twigs under any weight put upon them. Ibragim’s eyes landed upon the heavily detailed curtains - with gold thread words had been woven in, in a language unknown to his mind and yet leaving it curious for more.

After what seemed years, they finally came to halt before another door which seemed heavy and unmoving, yet with only a flick of her wand the heavily elaborate doors opened up. They were greeted by two large king sized beds put in front of a large window framed by heavy dark purple drapes, this time words woven in with a black thread. The floor covered with several dark blue rugs and scattered around the space were a few seating arrangements for no real purpose. For an average person, the space given to them only to rest would be fitting for a one bedroom apartment – Aleksei and Ibragim had easily the feeling of being dwarfs in such a room.

“This shall be your housing. These two will be your guards.”  
The two wide shouldered men nodded firmly, taking their places flanking door, blending into their posts like living statues. The Headgirl walked into the room and stood there. Looking around, with a very focused gaze as if to inspect if things were as they ought to be. Ibragim was next to enter followed by Aleksei, both unceremoniously shrugging off their heavy bags with loud thuds echoing around the large room. Aleksei walked to the large window and finally could tell what time of day it was – it seemed like the dead of night had taken over the land. His eyes moved over the rather vast inner courtyard before settling on the view of a dark red moon shining brightly in the sky.

“It is a blood moon.”  
“What a negative name to give such a beautiful sight. That is how our moon is every night. We have a red moon and golden sun - the day our moon is cold grey is when our sovereign dies.” she spoke again like someone’s mother, her tone of voice chosen to make sure that there was no doubt in anyone’s mind how educated she was. Aleksei looked away and avoided the Headgirls eyes, but Ibragim simply gave her a bored look as he didn’t see how ‘blood moon’ was a negative name to be given. She, herself, seemed proud to have shown her high level of knowledge. Or was it more her pleasure in hearing no comments from the two chatty males? “Why do you call it a blood moon, anyway?”

“I don’t even know. Ibragim?”  
“I am too tired to discuss the idea of a blood moon or why it is named like it. In our world such a moon happens since it catches some sunrays from the setting sun…or something like that. No special sign. Just nature.”   
Clearly Ibragim wasn’t the man to go into long discussions about topics when exhausted, becoming rather snappy with his replies and happy when left alone. Aleksei knew it too well, once even having gotten a beating from his brother as he had been a bit too annoying with questions about the occult and not giving his sibling a chance to snooze. Having learned, Aleksei knew not to bother the other too much and keep his thirst for knowledge at bay while the other found the mood to speak. Ibragim wasn’t a moody man, not at all, simply one to always make it clear what he felt and in what state of mind he happened to lounge in. In short - bold and honest.

“I will leave you for the night. Tomorrow you will meet the royal family and be questioned again or have a simple meeting – it has not been decided. I suggest you get sleep and be ready by 7:30AM. Breakfast is served at 8AM. I wish you a good rest.” The female, her hair having gotten a lot messier, gave a small bow of her before making her way towards the large heavily engraved black all metal door. As the day had gone on, the female didn’t put much effort in checking how she looked and much more if the work had been done correctly. In a way it was refreshing to see and gave her otherwise stern look a more relaxed and nearly human vibe even. Even if she tried to control every single aspect of what was happening around her, she couldn’t fully make her rather wild her bend itself to her wishes. A more relaxed vibe seemed to mix in with the usually stern looking female.

Ibragim threw himself onto the large bed once more, sinking into the soft mattress as the stretched out like a cat, body finally receiving the rest needed. Aleksei, left to his own thoughts and time to undress, started to slowly climb into his own bed as well.  
“You never told us your name, miss.”

Typically Ibragim Aleksei thought to himself, smiling a bit as his brother always managed to turn around and be a surprise. Though for an outsider the two didn’t seem like a logical pair of siblings, moments like these made it clear how they fitted each other. Even when Aleksei was done with is questions, there was always Ibragim, who had something to ask and inquire. They managed to always fill up each others knowledge gaps or hit the right nerve when it came to asking the right things at the right time.  
Ibragim had adjusted himself to lay on his right side, looking over at the female who had plucked her wand to open the door once more. She never spoke when waving the white wood, leaving her oddly frozen in a position that looked like she would conduct an orchestra. “He is right. You know our names, you know basics of us - yet we don’t know who our babysitter is.”

A heavy sigh was heard, the echo of it bouncing off the dark grey walls and clearly displayed her dislike for the curiosity of both males. With the day having rolled into the night, those sighs had grown heavier like a mother clearly disappointed in her children. Neither Aleksei or Ibragim could say if it was because they were nosy or her not deeming them worthy of such knowledge - whatever it was, she hadn’t planned on being a friendly and bright person to them for now. It wasn’t like she could be blamed, having a high office and two complete strangers in a world where humans weren’t allowed to enter for the past centuries. Furthermore she seemed to clearly ponder how much of her personal details should be shared, clearly not wanting to give away her name for some reason.  
“My name is Rachel Windbroke. My family has served the royal families since the 11th century and my sister also works in the royal estate. I am a pureblood witch and studied at the Whitewood School for Witches, house of the Emerald Cat. That is why my wand is white with an emerald green handle - to show the world my statues in the wizarding world. Again I wish you a good rest.” It was as if she read off a piece of paper while telling the two males about herself, not interested in sharing personal details about her life.

Ibragim seemed pleased with the reply, giving the female a small nod while she opened the door with a swipe of her wand. No words used and clearly again no one pushing them. The heavy metal doors slowly pushed themselves open, on the other side was a female clearly waiting for Rachel to arrive - in comparison her hair was pale white, put into a messy bun, and in age clearly a junior to the tight lipped witch. Her clothes were much more stylish and yet comfortable, clearly giving off a more relaxed layed back vibe. Once the door moved to close again, Aleksei spotted how the fair-haired female jumped to hug Rachel and much to his surprise he saw the witch smile wide. Nearly wanting to tell his friend to look at the once in a lifetime scene, he quickly noted that his best friend had knocked out.

Though he wished to watch the bloody moon for a moment longer, Aleksei soon fell asleep as well. The whole room was still filled with the milky red, both men in deep sleep as the whole castle fell into slumber. Over the clear night sky a falcon hovered over the building, soon joined by an eagle and raven as the three swooped down, passing by window after window until they stayed afloat before the window of Aleksei and Ibragim. The birds stared at the two sleeping figures, oddly hovering there and clearly with a mission unknown to the rest of the world. They were about to fly closer and peck at the glass, before a crackling sound could be heard behind them and the feathered creatures scrambled to fly to safety as a thunderbolt chased them. After a few seconds they were out of sight, leaving in the castles courtyard a figure. It was the king’s mother, with those green eyes staring daggers and smiling softly as she saw the two creatures fly away.

“My lady, please return to your rooms to rest. The night is cold.” a chamber maid spoke, having rushed over and quite out of breathe. Her hair was down and soon followed by others, everyone looking distressed and equally sleepy – however never forgetting their job.  
“I would prefer if I wasn’t commanded about, young lady,” the older female spoke calmly, looking firmly at her chambermaids before a small smile broke over her lips. It made her look younger, even if her long white grey hair hung heavy around her face and wrinkles defined a good part of her features – one single smile erased it away. Pulling her morning robes closer around her figure she started to walk back towards her bedroom. “Now let us go back to bed, ladies. No proper young woman should be awake at this hour.”


	4. The royals

The morning arrived nearly wordlessly as the sun rose over the vast peony fields with golden rays warming up the patches of land released from the grip of the night. Ibragim was the first to open his eyes, staring at the ceiling with a deep frown quickly to make itself noticed on his features. At first he had hoped every event of the past day was a very odd dream, one which never would be discussed or even mentioned. That suggestion however didn’t find any speck of reality to hold on as he realized everything was rather real. Even though he hadn’t slept like a rock for weeks, he felt uneasy being in such a luxurious setting without any true reason or logical explanation. He wished he could curse at his brother for dragging them both into this mess once more, but didn’t find the energy or actual desire to do so. In silence he enjoyed these trips, but this time around things simply went too far.

Pondering over the odd surroundings and happenings, he heard a dull thud next to him and Aleksei groaning into the soft pillow he had taken along for the fall. Anyone else would have been surprised, but Leksi was known to fall out of bed while asleep and continue his slumber at the new destination. For now said location was the soft carpet and the warming rays of the golden sun. Ibragim grumbled unhappily at the all too happy sight of his brother, slowly crawling out of bed as he stretched his body and let out small sounds of exhaustion. Moving much like a cat on a regular basis, he now more than ever seemed like a cat having awoken and stretching its limbs.

Silently he walked around the large space, wanting to find the bathroom and needing to check three doors before he found it – a large room made out of black marble with gold detailing and an odd smell of vanilla in the air. It looked absurdly ostentatious and unneeded; leaving him to nearly want to crawl back to bed that seemed so much simpler and comfortable.  
After about ten minutes of doing his usual morning routine and wasting time being spaced out, he emerged from the over the top space only to see Aleksei sitting on the floor with a sleepy expression on his face. “You look awake.”

However Ibragim could never be sure his brother was awake, having made the mistake one to many times to talk to the actually asleep Aleksei. Even if he sat upright and eyes seemed open, the younger of the two took large amounts of time to wake up. There was silence as Ibragim moved to the bed, took a seat and watched Leksi for some time only to see the latter fall back asleep looking like a toddler. Another sigh came from, leaving the male to move and get his notebook out – if he needed to kill time, he might as well note everything in his journal. His handwriting was neat and rather beautiful, having a flow to it and making it rather easy for others to read, which was why he used to share his notes with others.  
Complete silence held itself place for at least forty minutes before a rumble of a groan was heard from the floor and Aleksei slowly rose to his feet, clearly awake. “Good sleep. Best I have had in days, don’t you agree?”  
“I couldn’t complain. So you finally awake?”

Leksi nodded slowly and stretched, his long limbs still in a small state of slumber needing to be awakened immediately. The male looked around, his head filled with messy dark brown hair slowly turning to get the full idea of the room they were sleeping in. It was too luxurious for the two simple males, yet something they knew warranted such extravagance to be walk their way. “Say, do you think we can stay here for long or will have to leave once the royals have heard the story?”  
“How can we leave? They don’t know how we got here in the first place.” Ibragim snorted, rolling his eyes at the suggestion and finished writing down everything that had happened. “We should get ready.”

After about thirty minutes they both we ready with Aleksi having tried to once more check if any of their gadgets worked – everything seemed dead or give off noises as if dying. Ibragim on the other hand decided to take his notebook with him along with his favourite pen, knowing today would be once more a very different day. Together they stood before the large door, Leksi scratching the back of his neck as clearly neither could easily open the door without making more noise than needed. “Would the guards open it if we made noise?”  
Their heads tilted to the right, to the left and finally Ibragim let out a small sound of pure annoyance and knocked against the cold metal – the sound echoing through the room was cold and icy. As if it was light as a feather the heavily ornate doors swung open with no one standing on the other side beside the two guards – Aleksei peaking out his head to see if anyone would stop them. It looked comedic, yet needed as neither knew how and if they would be stopped. The two guards, looking much more like statues, didn’t budge an inch. No wonder as a rather familiar voice was soon to be heard.

“Good morning. I was instructed to bring you two to breakfast,” a female voice spoke, one which Ibragim recognized. She had been the guard who explained the connection of the two worlds and magical power surrounding them. Today she wasn’t cloaked, instead in a formal uniform consisting of long lavender blue pants, a slightly darker lavender jacket with several medals attached to it and her hair put in a high ponytail which ended up cascading down over her shoulder. It was only now the men could notice how long and luscious her hair was, how she looked much like a goddess from another realm. While both males stared at her she only smiled at them, head slightly tilting to the side once neither human seemed to react. “Sh-shall we? Headgirl hates to wait.”  
Springing into action Aleksei and Ibragim stepped out of their room, the door behind them shutting silently and they were started to be led through different rooms. Clearly more awake and curious, Ibragim caught up with her while his brother only stared in awe of the interior. “Excuse me, but we don’t know your name. We don’t know anyone’s name.”

The female stayed silent, face reflecting clear contemplation and in the end she stopped in the middle of the probably fifth room they had walked through. It was a simple looking space, Leksi coming to an halt a step or two later and watched as his brother finally caught up smiling like a child in a candy store. For him it had always been hard to understand why Ibragim was so engrossed and clearly felt love for interior design – for art in general. He had love for art, hard not to, but it never seemed to be an equal to his brothers.  
“As I am the one assigned to be your guide and main guard, I think I am allowed to share this information,” she spoke calmly, the melody of her voice soothing to the ears and taking out any agitated feeling from ones body. “Names have a very huge magical connections and knowing someone’s name, especially their full name, is equal to someone trusting you completely. I shall refrain from sharing my name with you until further notice.”

She bowed her head in apology, starting to walk again with a clearly lighter step while the two males looked at each other. It dawned on them that many knew their names and also they knew the Headgirls full name – was this some sort of equal balance? Yet another topic to discuss however no time to do so needing to speed up their step to catch up with the female. After another three rooms they arrived in a smaller space where a table was decked out in an overflowing breakfast with both Rachel and the female from last night having already taken their seats.  
The manners of this world unknown to them, they stood a bit awkward before Rachel moved to greet them with a small bow of her head and they mimicked it – joining the two females and watching as their guide took her spot to guard the door. Silence blanketed itself over the space while the males gathered food onto their plates, eyeing each other rather frequently. It would have been nice not to start off the day with a new piece of information, but they were toddlers in a new world and it seemed hard to avoid such heavy information bombs.  
“Would you like some coffee?” A voice asked, similar to Rachels yet with a small sing song like tone to it rather to a much more firm and authority filled one. Even if it was a calming, it made the males jump and stare at the female with long white hair put up in intricate hairdo. Several braids of varying thickness seemed to loop over her head with little to no stray piece of hair remaining – it looked polished and made another contrast with her sisters messier bun. “Did I startle you?”

“Coffee.”  
“Tea,” Leksi answered just after his brother, looking at the new acquaintance with the same marvel as at the rooms he had passed by. “You were at our door last night.”  
“Of course she was. The whole kingdom would like to have been,” Rachel commented, picking up his cup of coffee and looking at the other female. “This is my sister, Rini.”  
The males halted their actions for a moment, hearing Rini stand up and probably get the pots and looked at each other with a small confusion. “Pleasure to meet you, miss Rini.”  
Aleksei’s manners kicked in first eyes on his brother, who only nodded to the words and seemed to clearly not be focused on the topic on hand. It was written all over the males face – brows knotted together to create deep crevasses between his brows and eyes unfocused. There was the thought to kick the male, check if he was still on this planet and yet he decided otherwise and hoped Ibragim would regain himself. The duo was a headache to deal with, which was the go to sentence from their mother whenever either acted out. Two males, two different minds and yet they always observed each other and tried to make sure neither would end up in an awkward moment.

“Excuse me,” he spoke finally, probably reacting about five minutes too late and leaving his comment oddly misplaced by now. “You told us your name, but I somehow doubt your sisters name is name is Rini. By what we have been told, names hold magical power, so why do you tell us your name?”  
“They do. By you knowing this, then you asked your guides name and she did the logical thing, but over shared,” Rachel spoke with a small disapprovement in her voice as she looked over her shoulder. “Well you two own no magical powers and even if captured, my name is generally known due to the laps in logic by some in government. Knowing my sisters nickname won’t hurt anyone.”  
“Could we discuss the inner workings of your world after breakfast?” Aleksei, having been listening the whole time, had made himself a sandwich as he looked over at Rini several times. She had a rather calm expression, simple bluish green eyes only focused on Rachel and clearly not bothered by the conversation going on.  
“Just pass me the milk please,” Ibragim spoke, somehow sounding defeated and taking the small can to pour it into his cup. “Leksi, just pass me some of that bread.”  
The silence between them lasted a long time, gathering weight with every passing second and leaving everyone rather uncomfortable, to the point where Rachel decided to inform them about the royal family.

Since records have been kept and organized a royal family of purest blood, a king with a strong mind and honest heart had ruled the magical world. The old masters had decided upon such laws after twelve days and twelve nights, creating the first magically binding law in existence. The current family has reigned over the vast lands for the past thousand five hundred years, but truly the biggest scandal of the last decade was the insanity and inability to be a ruler that was displayed by the former king. He started out with great potential, a strong heart and perfect marriage – ended in chaos, insanity and disgrace. After several years of unrest the royal families second son, having won against his brothers, brought stability back to the kingdom. Whenever a new king needs to be chosen, at least among brothers, there always has been a battle between them to see which of them was the strongest and wisest. The three brothers were, like always, locked into a large arena with only their mother watching, and for two days battled with one emerging as the winner. The majority had hoped it would be the second son, leaving everyone hopeful for a new start and a fresh look at the monarchy.

After the history lesson breakfast was spent mostly in silence with the two men speaking in Russian if need be, servants walked in to clear out the table. Rachel was the first to stand, her sister following and then Aleksei with Ibragim rising to his feet with a small groan. Checking her pocket watch, the Headgirl gave a small nod of her head as she turned towards the guide of the two men. Another row of nods as the quintet started to move with Rachel at the head of everything, navigating the endless maze of rooms. As they walked the décor seemed to grow richer in both colour and gold, the number of guards growing in both size and armor. Finally they came to a halt before a large simple black door, guarded by two towering meat bags of guards standing before it. With small grunts they started to move aside while they stood, Aleksei and Ibragim exchanging looks before silently watching how another door swung open.  
Aleksei and Ibragim entered the room, greeted by three young gentlemen and an old proud looking woman. The males differed in height, but surely not in looks as all were handsome men with strong features and broad shoulders - the type to have women cue up in lines to date them. However the female was much more interesting, at least to Ibragim, as she sat there in her long blood red dress and had a look to her. One could describe it as someone aware of her statues and looks, even if they had faded by now, but above all someone who controlled the room with their mere presence. She didn’t smile, only bowed her head ever so slightly in greeting while her sons showed a lot more respect and a general joy in greeting the two humans - even interest was able to be noticed.

“They may be seated.” As Aleksei had guessed the third person talk would be something of an awkward way of communication, yet the men took their seats on splendidly carved wooden chairs with no padding in the back. Cold pieces to sit on and no comfort to be felt, leaving the two males feeling rather unwelcomed.  
Before them sat the king, who was slim in build and his shoulders clearly standing out, on a beautifully detailed black chair with his eyes fixated on the males and a pitch black long wand resting in his lap. To his right sat his mother, as told by Rachel with no wand, who now seen up close seemed disgusted to be in the same space as the two males. The greatest interest came from the other two brothers - youngest and eldest showing clear curiosity they didn’t need to hide to keep up an image. Ibragim did wonder how the duel between the three brothers had gone down as all had equal length pitch black wants with a single white stone imbedded in them. 

There was silence, which dragged on, as everyone eyed each other with different levels of interest. The king seemed like physically he surely was here, but mentally his mind was still at work with other more pressing matters. The signs were present with the frown that twisted his regal features. To his left sat his brothers, the youngest leaning in a bit to get a better look and finding Ibragim doing the same. The two started a staring battle, one which Aleksei was not interested in and the oldest brother found even more amusement in.  
“The reason you have been brought before the royal family is the statement you made yesterday,” Rachel spoke, her voice monotone and robot like. “You spoke of a woman with golden hair and old in age. Please retell the story.”

Aleksei hesitated, simply since he saw anger light up the king’s mother previously dead and cold greenish blue eyes - on second thought it seemed like rage and disgust mixed together or was it fear? He couldn’t pinpoint it, which somehow unsettled him to start and yet he felt a nudge in the ribs by his friend and so he started with a small mix of inaudible sounds before speaking up.  
“We are historians and adventurers, trying to see how some folktales have came about in the world. On our trip in South America we came across this simple small village, where we decided to rest and stock up. At night, when we were coming back from the store without drinks, a female appeared out of a run down house. It was simple looking hut with intricate drawings and symbols, none of them known to us so my interest had been caught easily. She was at least 70, if not older,” he started, trying to remember everything he had told the elderly man and make sure no detail was left out. The king mother and king seemed interested, though hid the fact well, and the other two listened, yet seemed a lot more focused on their mother. “She wore traditional clothing and had scars on both of her cheeks and forehead, like someone had clawed at her. One eye was dark brown and the other icy blue, very unsettling for me, and her nose was long but slender with a septum piercing and lips thin yet red in colour. Her hair was golden, not simply blond, but truly golden and braided firmly against her scalp. She spoke English well enough, broken in some part but you could piece it all together.

“Without asking she told us about these caves hidden in the mountains where ancients left behind curious pictures and told tales after tales how people had claimed to have found them. The stories were so colourful and varied, yet had one theme which clearly showed they had some basis of truth and fin…”  
“Did she have all black tattooed hands with a single white rose tattooed onto both of her palms?” the king mother interrupted Aleksei who had just started to go into detail about everything. Ibragim nearly wanted to applaud her for doing what his friend had done so many times, yet his mind was preoccupied with the question. Especially since her voice didn’t match her facial expression as her question was filled equally with interest as well as near fear while her face seemed cold and distant.  
“Yes.” Both men spoke in union.

A loud shattering was heard in the distance as a vase seemed to explode, water and beautifully blossoming peonies smashed against the nearby wall and dumped on ground, it all framed with different sized shards of porcelain. The two humans jumped, visibly so, as they turned to see what had happened only to hear louder and louder shattering sounds all around them, the noise nearly deafening them both. Hands rising quickly to cover their ears, Ibragim noticed the king bolting out of his chair wand in hand and making a quick movement. The other two sons moved to their mother, speaking to her and yet neither of the humans understood what was spoken as the sound caused a severe ringing in their heads. However his focus lessened quickly, the sound robbing him of clear sight and hearing, leaving him to twirl out of focus entirely and fall onto the ground.

The soul shattering screeching sounds only slowly lessened as glass bounced off the protective barrier created around them, Aleksei feeling utterly light headed and with horror seeing his friend and brother fall to the ground. Rachel along with the two guards rushed to his side, Aleksei soon following as his head spun like crazy. Ibragim’s body seemed like each limb was lost, simply laying there and face paler than usual - in the pits of his stomach Aleksei felt like he would be sick.   
The king, having finished setting up the cold blue glowing barrier, turned around to see his mother who had turned pale and fury made her actually grey hair light up bright red. The previously styled hair seemed now like a lion's mane around her face, a sight that clearly unsettled all the brothers. Nothing less than fear and worry was painted across the males faces, yet in a simple small moment they seemed to all have come to an agreement as they nodded their heads. 

“Peles!”The three males spoke in union, all holding their wands and looking at their mother, as small neon pink flashes sprung free from the wands and onto the king mothers dress. Like someone had flipped the switch, the females hair became grey again and she seemed to have knocked out, falling forward into the welcoming arms of her youngest son. There was silence, a welcomed sound.   
Aleksei’s ears rung less by now, though the feeling of queasiness still lingered strongly within his gut and worry made it worse as his friend wouldn’t wake up. The king mother seemed to have passed out herself, the eldest son taking her figure into his arms and looking at the king for further instruction on what to do with her. Fury suddenly sprang free within him as he turned around to look at the three brothers. “What was that?”  
No one spoke, no sound was there to break the forced silence as shock lingered on along with the spoken curiosity of Leksei. As things had escalated from a mere answer, a truthful one, the male felt annoyance install itself into his system. As the royals gave no answer, he moved his gaze over to Rachel frantically giving instructions to what would happen next. No one seemed to really pay attention to him, leaving the human to wonder why he seemed to truly be bothered by what happened.  
“What was that?” he repeated with clear annoyance and anger defined in his voice. 

“It is forbidden for women, who marry into the royal family, to have wands or practice powerful magic. As such these women are trained to harness their magic differently - our mother uses her spirit animal as one,” the youngest son spoke, looking at Aleksei with a small apologetic gaze before putting away his wand. “It is extremely dangerous. You see denying what you are naturally, what is apart of you – only a few females survive. Our mother has grown old and isn’t the best at harnessing her magic, so long it always explodes out of her, rather than being a controlled use of what is simply apart of you.”  
“Said tradition is not apart of this world anymore.”  
It wasn’t a comment or reply, it was a statement as if already etched into stone – the king’s voice was firm and demanding of immediate obedience to his words. Ibragim always said that such people simply had extremely old souls. It wasn’t the typical feeling of out place in a sociality that isn’t for all, but a soul older than we could imagine or understand. It carries a weight and weightlessness as it understands the flaws humanity carries, but every new host is a new chance to better the mistakes of the past. The king seemed to own such a soul, a wise and old one which let him govern the way he did.

“And Ibragim?”  
“He will need some medical attendance, but you can continue on answering to the royals questions if there are presented,” Rachel replied, leaving Aleksei to turn around only to spot that his friend was being carried out of the room. The eldest son followed suit together with the youngest, neither eager to stay in such a tense environment.  
“He shall stay.”  
The shuffling out of the room took a while, but eventually an odd calming friendly silence took hold of the space once more. Aleksei started to notice the richly decorated room, where the floors were out of red oak and polished to perfection. Whoever did the interior designed must have had a loving relationship to the rococo style as there were endless amounts of small details scattered about the room. Soft colours filled the room along with highly detailed furniture, enriching the space as well as overwhelming it. Your eyes didn’t rest, instead you found detail after detail – one more pompous than the other. Aleksei slowly felt the headache come back again, trying his best to find a calm area to focus on while the king settled back into a more comfortable position.  
“He may sit again,” the king spoke, voice a lot less firm and having a fatherly tone to it. “I apologize for the sight he had to see, but I ask him not to speak of it to anyone else. It is not good manners to speak about the king’s mother in a negative way. However the conversation needs to continue in order to find a solution.”

It was odd, so endlessly weird hearing someone talk like that, yet Aleksei didn’t dare to suggest a more relaxed way of speaking, as he had no statues to request a change of communicating.  
“He said the female had hands were tattooed black with a white rose on each palm. That woman is and probably will be the highest ranked criminal our world has ever seen – the reason of my father insanity, abdication and death no less. He mentioning her makes it obvious that although it had been hoped she died, the opposite is the fact,” the king went on, his voice a low rumble yet calm and oddly collected. It was similar to listening to a grandfather speak to his grandchild, trying to teach a new generation. “Now the two are simply put pawns in her game.”  
“And we never got an invite to the party. It is all well and sweet, but I don’t understand how any of this matters in regards to us,” Aleksei argued, interested in the whole history lesson, but not understanding how it related back to them. He watched how the king took his seat, adjusted himself and able to look at his guest. The way the male sat and looked at him, the way he seemed to easily rule over the whole room with one simply glance was rather intimidating. “However it isn’t that simple, isn’t it?”

“Exactly. They pure fact that he is human means everything. She always ran her campaign on the idea that humans should be taught magic just like we are, which is a good idea, but humans,” he spoke and stopped, looking at Aleksei with a small sense of sadness in his eyes, seeming to grow the longer those orbs stayed on his face. Those eyes had clearly seen sadness unbeknown to the human, a fact that left a small piece of fear inside Aleksei’s heart and he couldn’t really understand why. It was the gaze that made him wish they could change the subject or at least avoid eye contact. No ones eyes should hold such sorrow, because it meant their heart hadn’t been left untouched either. “Humans burn out. The magical energy in this realm overpowers them, makes them go insane at best. You two have been here only two days, but someone surrounded by it their whole lives – we to this day have the Nightmare Asylum with the last hundred humans who learnt magic.”

“But could it be they had preexisting conditions? I mean humanity is and has suffered under several of such cases. We even had a mad king or well several,” he spoke trying to somehow find a logical explanation, leaving him to wonder how many talk there was of such cases. “I mean don’t you have it in your world?”  
“Of course we do, though it is seen as something brought in by humans or someones inability to truly harness their magic,” he spoke, once more sounding exhausted as if he had lived and carried the burden of everyone. The male was no more than twenty-seven, how could one man have seem to old and tired. “And yes of course that option was explored, in depth. However what is the chance of us getting nearly 3000 children with all suffering under some sort of dormant medical illness?”  
“Slim,” Aleksei echoed the idea, thinking for a moment before his brows were furrowed together firmly. “Three thousand children?”

“We had close ties, many saw a chance for their child to excel and hopefully be better off,” he spoke, looking at the male his brimming with sadness. It was clear as day how much the king seemed to suffer under such knowledge of what had happened in the past. “The royal family wasn’t against it, but the signs were there from the start and yet we ignored them. You see as your world suffered famine and plague, so did we and losing huge chunks of ones population is never easy. Finding human children who could be apart of our society seemed like a magical cure. However as the magical energy grew stronger, time shifted and our worlds grew out of sync. When you entered the 19th century, we were barely staring with the 14th century. Things changed, humans learned about how magic affected the children and they grew scared, monarchs grew scared and things ended.”

“We always had a wish for a better life, which is why I shouldn’t be surprised about the whole ordeal,” Leksei muttered under his breath, hands moving through his thick hair as his brain tried to store all of this new information about a world he knew nothing about. “By the way where is my brother?”  
“It is a natural wish, I guess,” he spoke calmly, moving to sit down closer to Aleksei, adjusting in his seat. While the Russian sat comfortably in the chair, enjoying the comfort from the soft backrest, while the royal had a straight back and held some sort of dominance over the whole room. “He is in the infirmary, which is near my mother's accommodation. Actually I am surprised you didn’t pass out.”

“I was close. How long will he be in there?” Aleksei felt slightly off to being away from his brother like this, unsure how to make sure the other was okay and taken care of.  
“Well, you not passing out shows that you won’t be too weak to the effects of magic. A good piece of information to have. However I can not say how long he will be in there, since I have no idea what such an outburst of magic might do to a human. The study of magic affecting humans has been stagnant over the past years, especially once it was forbidden to run tests on the people in the asylum,” the king spoke with a soft tone of voice, laced with sadness and something like defeat. He aged visible talking about such depressing topics, yet clearly knew it was apart of the history and needed to be put out there. Aleksei silently admired the male and his clear understanding about how important truth was, especially to a monarch ruling after a uprising. “Clearly you seem fine, speak logically and thoughtfully.”

The male gave a small smile to the comment, yet couldn’t shake off the heap of questions resting on his shoulders. Every single new sentence created new unknown territories, which needed to be explored and questioned. “Is there a chance I or my brother will go insane?”  
“Technically, yes. Realistically, no,” a low-pitched voice spoke, the oldest of the brothers entering as he was tucking away his wand. Stopping he gave a deep bow to his brother, whispering ‘May he live long’ before straightening up and looking at Aleksei with the same curious eyes as before. A towering figure of at least two meters, broad shoulders and lush dark hair – it was a given that the male was a huge hit with the ladies. “As far as the studies have gone, grown ups aren’t affected as easily or fast as young bodies. Thus you should be okay. Also you are currently conscious.”  
“We just commented on that. Curious, is it not?” The king seemed to lighten up a bit, nearly smiling as his eyes rested upon his brother and moved in his seat to make room. While the oldest was broad shouldered and tall, he wasn’t as slim and yet firm as the ruler – they had similar body types, just the small changes made up the big difference between them. “May I inquire to why you and your brother look different?”

“Blood doesn’t make us brothers, but a different yet deep connection,” Aleksei commented with a light smile on his lips, looking at the brother with an amused smile on his lips. They had confusion on their features, it tried to hide it and failed rather miserably. “My parents adopted him when we were very little, grew up together and raised as brothers. Honestly my father used to joke that we were actually soulmates, two souls that simply fit together. Nowadays soulmates are seen to be connected with love, yet there are other relationships connected to such a bond.”  
There was a knowing nod from both males, small glances sent to each other before they settled their gazes once more onto Aleksei. Even their eyes were different – the kings were equally tired and fierce, like two different aged souls were combined into one man. Those (colour) eyes seemed liquid, moving and questioning everything around him without a moment of pause, of rest. The olders eyes were a lot more alive and wild, question within them along with a thirst to test out everything and understand every single detail. They shone the moment new information was handed to him, mind able to process everything and file every piece of information.

“Another question from me – you said that woman ran her ‘campaign’ on humans should be taught magic too. Is she then…?” he asked, deciding it wasn’t the time or place to discuss his relationship with Ibragim. The matter of fact was that Aleksei was too worried to really dwell on how close he was with his brother, thus asking about something else instead.  
“Bertha Hubeldom,” the oldest prince spoke clearly, ignoring how his youngest brother visibly tensed hearing the name. “The name is allowed to be used, brother.”  
“Yes well, quite,” the king spoke softly, eyes diverting to a wall as if he was tuning out of the whole conversation if it would be carried out as such. Aleksei couldn’t miss how each brother had their own area of experience, which was used when conversing with someone. They were in a sense a team package, knowing well where they ought to help each other out and where to keep their mouths shut.

“She is a witch, yes. From a middle class family, who lost a good amount of their fortune selling spells to fairies illegally. However she was gifted and knew her charms, using them well to get a better warmer spot under the sun – in the end miss Hubeldom was my father private secretaries help. I am not too well knowing about how she managed to poison out fathers mind with different ideas, but our mother caught on,” he spoke, yet the words and the tone used seemed to indicate there was more that was left unspoken. Aleksei would have loved to know the full story, guessing in silence there were also feelings involved. “Our mother forced her out of the royal household and I guess that was the first mistake. Miss Hubeldom started gathering like minded people around the country and finally the uproar happened. What the general public does not know was the fact that our father agreed with her, encouraged and tried to help the rebellion – it was easier to call him insane than to face the humiliation.”

“You see our mother took over,” the king spoke, eyes unfocused as if remembering those years of rebellion. “She made sure that our household and name was kept clean, the rebels publicly shamed and the rebellion crushed without much force. To our luck added the fact that people had seen what kind of insanity was brought onto humans by learning magic. Even though the asylum was closely guarded and well hidden, the secret was uncovered and the rebels support. In the end my father was found dead, I descended the throne and peace returned to our land.”  
“Why did she pick us? We have no agenda in this,” Aleksei pondered more to himself than to the other two, figuring it couldn’t only be because of their interest for folklore. Gazing at the two royal princes and their own confused expressions, it became clear there was no simple answer and rather a complex one where not every single detail had been uncovered. After all a royal family never only had one secret to hide. It couldn’t be that simple and easy.

**Author's Note:**

> I will probably post updates on this story biweekly as then I can write in peace and edit it properly.  
> P.S. This story in many ways is published and exists because of this person right [ here. ](http://supernaturalkpoplove.tumblr.com/)


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